AB 450: Employment regulation: immigration worksite enforcement actions.

Existing law prohibits an employer or other person or entity from engaging in, or to directing another person or entity to engage in, unfair immigration-related practices against a person for exercising specified rights. Existing law defines unfair immigration-related practices for these purposes. Existing law grants the Labor Commissioner access to places of labor and authorizes the commissioner to conduct investigations and prosecute actions in relation to the prescribed duties of the office. Existing law creates the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund, moneys in which, upon appropriation by the Legislature, are available to support the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

This bill would impose various requirements on public and private employers with regard to federal immigration agency immigration worksite enforcement actions. Except as otherwise required by federal law, the bill would prohibit an employer or other person acting on the employers behalf from providing voluntary consent to an immigration enforcement agent to enter nonpublic areas of a place of labor unless the agent provides a judicial warrant, except as specified. Except as required by federal law, the bill would prohibit an employer or other person acting on the employers behalf from providing voluntary consent to an immigration enforcement agent to access, review, or obtain the employers employee records without a subpoena or court order, subject to a specified exception. The bill would grant the Labor Commissioner or the Attorney General the exclusive authority to enforce these provisions and would require that any penalty recovered be deposited in the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund. The bill would prescribe penalties for failure to satisfy the prohibitions described above of $2,000 up to $5,000 for a first violation and $5,000 up to $10,000 for each subsequent violation, as defined. The bill would specify circumstances for which penalties do not apply.

The bill, except as required by federal law, would require an employer to provide a current employee notice containing specified information, by posting in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment information, of an inspection of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms or other employment records conducted by an immigration agency within 72 hours of receiving the federal notice of inspection. The bill would require an employer, upon reasonable request, to provide an affected employee a copy of the notice of inspection of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner, by July 1, 2018, to create a template for these purposes and make it available, as specified. The bill would require an employer to provide to an affected current employee, and to the employees authorized representative, if any, a copy of the written immigration agency notice that provides for the inspection results and written notice of the obligations of the employer and the affected employee arising from the action, as specified. The bill would define affected employee for these purposes. The bill would prescribe penalties for failure to provide the notices of $2,000 up to $5,000 for a first violation and $5,000 up to $10,000 for each subsequent violation, except as specified, to be collected by the Labor Commissioner.

Except as required by federal law, the bill would prohibit an employer from reverifying the employment eligibility of a current employee at a time or in a manner not required by specified federal law. The bill would prescribe a penalty of up to $10,000 for a violation of this prohibition to be recoverable by the Labor Commissioner.